The Wedge family

At that time, Preventive Service Officers (Customs & Excise) were not usually allowed to work in their birth locality and were stationed away from home. They met young ladies in the coastal towns where they were stationed and married into local families. It is not surprising, therefore, that parish registers show that men from Cornwall married local girls and vice versa.

John Wedge and his family

In 1763 John Wedge, a Master Mariner, from St Ives in Cornwall married Elizabeth Thomas who had been born at Trecryn. Elizabeth and her brother John had come to live at Goodig, a gentry mansion house on the outskirts of Llanelli.

Goodig

Elizabeth Thomas and John Wedge, Master Mariner, married on 27 January 1763 and it may be that they settled in St Ives when they first married because their sons were both baptised at St Ives. These sones were John Wedge, b. 11 December 1765, baptised 17 February 1766; and Joshua Thomas Wedge, baptised 28 December 1776.

In 1791 John Thomas of Goodig died and was buried in Pembrey Church and Goodig passed to Elizabeth and John Wedge because Elizabeth's brother and his wife Hannah had died childless.

John and Elizabeth may have stayed at Goodig for a while, before returning to St Ives. Their elder son John married Jane Williams in 1806 and had one son called John Thomas and three daughters, including Jane Mary and Anne Rachell. Joshua, their younger son,  married Elizabeth Roe in 1811 and they had at least two children, a son Joshua John and a daughter Elizabeth who married into the Buckley family.

John Wedge junior took an active part in the town’s maritime affairs and between 1806 and 1808 he published a highly regarded chart of the Burry Estuary entitled A Chart of the Burry Bar and Harbour (Llanelly) by John Wedge, formerly Master of a Vessel which traded there. This Chart proved to be a valuable navigation aid and all mariners entering the Burry Estuary were given a copy. He also published a chart and description of Kidwelly harbour in 1814.

When an Act of Parliament was passed on 10 June 1825 authorising Pembrey New Harbour, to be built on Tywyn Bach, Captain John Wedge and Sir John Banks were appointed resident engineers in charge. John Wedge and his wife Jane lived at Goodig and the census of 1841 and 1851 shows that John was a farmer of about 80 acres.

His brother Joshua Thomas Wedge formed a partnership with John Rees of Cilymaenllwyd House and initiated a very successful public subscription in 1805 to purchase buoys and other navigational aids to enable mariners and their vessels to use the Burry Estuary safely. Joshua built Penyfai and when his daughter Elizabeth married James Buckley (the grandson of Henry Child and son of the Wesleyan Itinerant Preacher), the family lived at the grand mansion.

It is interesting to note that although Goodig had passed to John and Elizabeth Wedge in 1791, John did not appear in the trade directory of 1811. John and Elizabeth Wedge must have returned to St Ives because their son John of Goodig wrote about two vessels that had been wrecked in 1793 and his letter was addressed to his father at St Ives. The family was not mentioned in the trade directory of 1830 either, but Joshua Thomas Wedge, Esq., of Penyfai appeared under the heading ‘Gentry’ in the 1835 directory.

By 1844 John Wedge of Goodig and Joshua Thomas Wedge of Penyfai appeared under ‘Gentry’. The census of 1841 and 1851 show that Joshua, a widower, lived with his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren at Penyfai.

John Wedge junior of Goodig died aged 88 in 1853 and his brother Joshua Thomas Wedge died in 1856. They were both Cornishmen who had married local girls and became part of the maritime, industrial and commercial affairs of the developing town. Their knowledge of maritime matters certainly ensured that they were highly respected by other mariners and local businessmen.

Unidentified member of the Wedge Family

(artist unknown)

The portrait is hanging in Parc Howard Museum and was donated by Lt Col Kemmis Buckley.

It is possible the sitter was the wife of Joshua Thomas Wedge of Penyfai (father of Elizabeth Wedge who married James Buckley in 1834).

Note The portrait may be that of Elizabeth Wedge’s mother or even her grandmother, but as it was in the possession of Lt Col Kemmis Buckley it is more than probable that it is the wife of Joshua Thomas Wedge and not the wife of his brother John Wedge of Goodig.